An Interview With Matt Goss

Lead singer of iconic 80s duo, Bros, Matt Goss talks 80s trends, coping with Covid — and tells Isle of Wight Radio host, Jenni Costello, what inspired his new album, The Beautiful Unknown.

JENNI: Congratulations on your new album, The Beautiful Unknown. And I love the new single Better with You. It's so 80s and it's so upbeat.

MATT: Yeah I just had this overwhelming feeling that was similar as when I was writing part of those number one songs. And I just know in my heart, this is a big, big hit record. And I'm very proud of it.

JENNI: So how did you cope with lockdown? Because I read that a lot of the inspiration for this album came out of that time.

MATT: I completely fell out of love with music. I didn't want to even touch my piano, my guitars. I'm a multi-instrumentalist. I love building tracks, but I didn’t even want to go into my studio for months. My sole mission was to plough through my fears and my worries and just make sure the audience were transported into a better place.

JENNI: I've heard that you did reach out to a lot of your fans during lockdown, didn't you? And helped quite a lot of them through it.

MATT: Yeah, I made a promise to them that I would go live every day, until we saw some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. I ended up going live over 300 times. I called four or five fans. There was one time when a girl was going through a very, very troubling time at the highest level. And 22,000 people joined us on that live. And we lifted her spirits. And she then later went on to tell a national newspaper about what happened. And she said that it saved her life. It gave me great purpose. And those lives. They’re the reason why I sat down and wrote a song called Shipwreck. Shipwreck is about that moment. My imagery was that dismantling of a shipwreck underwater in slow motion. And that's how I felt. I felt dismantled. And sitting down at the piano made me feel that I could express that. I called the legendary Babyface. And he said, “Man, we've got to record this.”

JENNI: So the title of the album, The Beautiful Unknown, what do you mean by that?

MATT: The Beautiful Unknown is part of my inner philosophy. I use it a lot in my poetry. In poetry you’re never imprisoned. When it comes to similes, metaphors, analogies, you can just lose yourself. It can be terribly dark or terribly uplifting. But I use that phrase a lot because I believe that we've been programmed to fear the unknown in some ways, rightfully so. But my wish would be that this becomes a very loved British pop record. Also because of the sensibility and the honesty about it, and what it addresses. And it is wrapped up in these beautiful pop melodies, but hopefully, if we collectively all believe that the unknown is a beautiful thing, that there's something not to be fearful, I do truly believe in energy. And I think, on an energetic level, if we all collectively move in one direction and say, hey, listen, it's gonna be alright. That is exactly what will happen.

JENNI: So you're moving back to the UK. Are you going to miss LA and Vegas?

MATT: I'm living by-coastly I'm going to live in LA and London. I don't think I'll ever come back to one place. I just think it's in my blood. My mum was a bit of a gypsy and I feel the same. I am received like a member of the family in this country. If you walked through any street with me, people will talk to me with an immediacy of familiarity. Emotionally it's very comforting.

JENNI: Looking back to those golden days of the late 80s. Tell me about your most memorable moment on Top of the Pops.

MATT: I think the most memorable moment on Top of the Pops is simply the first time you get that call. And you are just a regular guy with a record out and you're watching that show. It was a TV religion. You were not British if you didn't know Top of the Pops. But that very first Top of the Pops is a pinch me moment. And to this day, it’s a moment I'll never forget.

JENNI: Why do you think the 1980s were so special?

MATT: Back then, you get She Drives Me Crazy from the Fine Young Cannibals. You get INXS. You get Sinead O'connor you get Ultravox, you get Duran Duran, you get Bros, you get all these different sound in bands that are the 80s and nobody tried to write a song that sounded like somebody else. You would get a song just smack you in the face, you know, where did this song come from. In the 80s less was just less. I am a big lover of less is more when it comes to style and you know the way fashion is. But less was just less in the 80s and it was unashamedly beautifully massive and manic and rock and roll. That era and that band in that time has given me some incredible things to be grateful for.

JENNI: Everybody was so original, and all the songs are so original, and you were like nobody else. Nobody else was like Bros, which is fantastic.

MATT: The thing about Bros is there was a uniform. If you think about it… ripped jeans, or just Levis white t-shirt, bandana and a biker jacket, or bomber jacket. And our first record, just in Britain alone, 2.2 million and getting close to 10 million copies worldwide. That first record, it was an incredible feeling to be part of that movement. And just as important as the music, the uniform that was created. And in many ways I still think that we're responsible for a lot of moves in fashion.

JENNI: Oh definitely all the Brosettes copying everything you wear. And talking of Brosettes, are you going to be doing another tour together?

MATT: I think Luke's right to say this, we won't tour until we do another record because we vow that we would never break up again. So I am still the lead singer of Bros we are still a pop supergroup. We want to continue to play venues like the 02. But we do not want to go out without new music. But that is on the cards next year. Yeah